-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
KSAN vs KFRC The Golden Years
- Thread starter MasterDJ
- Start date
In what era?
Okay---so "The Golden Years" is in the subject line, so I'm going to assume we're talking about during KSAN's life as a rock station (1968-80), which would be pretty close to KFRC's best years (they peaked in '78).
Not all the books got saved and digitized, but based on what did, the answer is no, if we're talking total audience (12+).
Using that metric, KSAN's peak was in January/February of 1973, when it got a 4.4---tying for 7th with KYA and only 1.2 behind KSFO. KFRC had a 6.6.
That same book, it was very close between KFRC and KSAN in 7-midnight---KFRC with a 6.1 and KSAN with a 5.7 (Ironically, KYA beat them both, with a 6.3--the last time KYA would beat KFRC).
I'm sure that somewhere in there, if we're talking 18-34 adults or 18-34 men, KSAN probably beat KFRC, but we don't have demographic information for San Francisco until 1977, and KSAN was well into its decline by then.
P18-34:
Oct/Nov 1971, KFRC - 10.5; KSAN-FM - 4.1
Apr/May 1974, KFRC - 8.9; KSAN-FM - 6.5
Oct/Nov 1976, KFRC - 9.0; KSAN-FM - 5.7
Even in its best performing demo (Men 18-24), in the April/May 1974 book KSAN-FM had an 8.8 share behind KFRC's 10.1.
Thanks, Huff!
Hagerty,
FYI...
I've been informed that there's a post on one of the numerous KSAN social media pages asserting their victory over KFRC in 1974. Although I haven't personally come across the post, my neighbor, who happens to be a television engineer, insists that such a claim is being made in the post.
Show your neighbor this thread
Huff had more extensive ratings available than I did and he can’t find any evidence it ever happened either.
Better yet, show us what they’re posting.
....and now that it's morning and I've had coffee, it occurs to me why this is happening now:
The long-in-production-and-then-in-limbo KSAN documentary, "Something in the Air", had a couple of screenings up in Marin last month----the first ones since its "World Premiere" four years ago.
Very likely, the claim was made in an interview in the film. The interviews were done anywhere from six to ten years or more ago.
Last edited:
Wow...wasn't aware of this at all. Hope it gets distribution.
I have a friend who's a KSAN alum and who appears in it. Apparently the music clearances have been the biggest money drain. There's also been a pretty big glut of music documentaries from that era the past eight years, since "All Things Must Pass", Colin Hanks' documentary on Tower Records---which only grossed $175,000.
As legendary as KSAN is, it's one radio station in one American city, and it's been gone (in the form the documentary covers) for 43 years---that narrows its audience pretty severely.
KGB-FM in San Diego did the same thing about four years ago. So far, it's been broken up into five installments and shown in a public library:
What could have driven those ratings? I look at what was happening in January 1974:
www.onthisday.com
Joni Mitchell released Court & Spark in January. Big record, likely got played on KSAN, but not big enough to drive radio ratings.
What Happened in January 1974
What Happened in January 1974. Browse historical events, famous birthdays and notable deaths from Jan 1974 or search by date, day or keyword.
www.onthisday.com
Joni Mitchell released Court & Spark in January. Big record, likely got played on KSAN, but not big enough to drive radio ratings.
What could have driven those ratings? I look at what was happening in January 1974:
What Happened in January 1974
What Happened in January 1974. Browse historical events, famous birthdays and notable deaths from Jan 1974 or search by date, day or keyword.
Joni Mitchell released Court & Spark in January. Big record, likely got played on KSAN, but not big enough to drive radio ratings.
Well, it's very demo-driven---KSAN only had a 3.7 12+. And that was one of the brief windows where KSAN had the album thing pretty much to itself. KSFX dropped ABC's "Rock 'n Stereo" format the previous summer to go Top 40, and KSJO and KOME were still thought of as San Jose stations (prior to phase-loop locked tuning, SF's hills could make listening to those stations challenging in the city itself).
I'm guessing those numbers weren't necessarily dependent on events.
Huff, can we get like a five-book look at those 18-24 rankings with Jan/Feb '74 in the middle?
I think music clearances have also held up Adam Carolla’s KROQ documentary too. It was supposed to be on Netflix a few years ago but it hasn’t come out yet.
How did KLOK do in this ratings book?
I'd guess not anything amazing...it was up against KSFO, which was still huge, and KNBR.
Huff's available ratings go further back and are more in-depth in terms of demographics, but looking at the earliest books available on WorldRadioHistory-dot-com (April/May '76), in the San Francisco book, KLOK was 14th with a 2.4 (overall audience 12+).
In San Jose, in April/May '76, KLOK was 4th with a 6.9, behind KBAY (9.8), KFRC (7.2), and KOME (7.1). So it beat KSFO and KNBR in the South Bay, but I don't think it was ever especially competitive in the San Francisco book.
- Status